Svindal tops the downhill training in Wengen

14 January 2016 12:36

Svindal in Wengen -

Agence Zoom

After a cancellation on Wednesday, the athletes finally get a chance to test out the traditional Lauberhorn race course today in Wengen. This was only possible thanks to the hard work from the course crew, that worked late hours cleaning the course and injecting parts of it. Nevertheless, the race could not start from the original position and was moved down to the Alpine Combined start due to due bad weather conditions.

Speed king Aksel Lund Svindal was the fastest in this training run, with a time of 1:49:66, even though he didn’t push hard until the very end of the course.

"It was a good run", said Svindal. "It's really bad light today, that makes it really hard to make a clean run because you can't see all the terrain and your skis are bouncing all over the place. I need to clean it up a little bit before race day for sure, but the speed is there and it looks alright."

Austria’s Vincent Kriechmayr, who is coming closer and closer to the Top 5 group this season, was only +0.04 off the Norwegian’s pace and could lay down a strong run.

"The feeling was great" said Kriechmayr. "I like this course and I’m always happy to come back to Wengen. The slope was in a good shape, just a little rough in the lower part, but we’re used to this since Santa Caterina.”

Italian Peter Fill, who started great in the season with 2 podium finishes in Lake Louise, rounds out the podium.

"Yes, I’m satisfied with my training today" said Fill. "Everything was not perfect, but the parts I focused on went well. The slope is in a great shape today, so yes, it’s all good."

Friday is already race day, with the scheduled Alpine Combined starting at 10.30 (DH run) and 14.00 (SL run). The AC will be followed by the longest downhill of the world on Saturday (start at 12.30) and the slalom run on Sunday (starts at 10.30 / 13.30).